The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-12-24

by his earliest predecessors In ONCE
We therefore call the attention OF
our countrymen to the facts OF their
own recent history under the lnhu-
ence of a policy of protection. Inc
principle of a protective tariff
was adopted in 1861, during the war
of the Rebellion. For four years al
ter its adoption the war continued.
parrlyzing business and industries
and rendering large portion of the
country overrun by the contendlng
armies almost a waste. and yet such
has been the beneficial influence and
effect of the protective system upon
the country, that to-day there is not
another to be found in the world, or
in the records of the past, where
nation has ever made the progress we
have made during like period o.
time. To-day IN wealth, power,
grandeur and civilization the United
States stands first among the nations
of the world. The United States,
while extending their power and in
creasing their wealth as nation,
have developed their resources, built
up their industries, and given en-
ploYment to our people to such an ex-
tent as to make the nation in most
things Independent of foreign pro-
duction for the commodities and me-
cessities which our people require,
and at least costs to pay for similar
articles before 1860, when we had
comparative free trade, so that TO-
day labor is better paid and manu-
featured commodities cheaper in
price to all our people than they
were before the present protective
system was adopted, Those impor-
tant results have been accomplished
by the vast increase of home compe-
tition, with its concurrent advant-
age of an equal increase in the en-
plOyment of labor both skilled and
unskilIed and in the recompense of
| labor.
We, therefore, appealing to the
foregoing history of the Republican
party, and that of the country iden-
/ titled with it, make the following
declarations:
We emphatically refuse to abandon
the policy of home protection, on
which our uneXampled national pro-
gress and prosperity are founded.
The effect of the Democratic policy
would be disastrous by transferring
many of our industries to England,
and 'robbing our working people OF
their employment and wages for the
benefit of British manufactures we
recognize in the message of the head
of the Democratic party a tender to
our country of the choice between
supporting the laborers and industries
of Great Britain and Europe gener-
ally on the one hand, and on the
other the support of the laboring
men and industrial enterprises OF
America. The principle of protection
is not founded upon the interests OF
any one section. or of any one class
of individuals, but upon the interests
of their entire country, its supreme
object to render A america independent
of Europe. to render the United
States entirely self-sustaining. We
believe that only the restoration OF
Republican supremacy gives assur-
ance of uniting reduced taxes, a re-
vised tariff and limited surplus, with
the preservation of the policy which
alone saves us from becoming COM
mercial slaves of Europe.
We condemn the hostility of the
Democratic party in the House OF
Representatives to all means for the
advancement of broad, popular edu-
cation, reviving no past issues. We
insist as living question, and in.
despensable bulWork of National
security, upon free. honest ballot,
and fair count in all the States OF
the Union.
We charge the Democratic party
with failing to provide out of the
abundant resources of the Nation for
the building up of more efficient
navy for the protection of our de-
fenseless seacoast, for the restoration
of our commercial marine, with culp-
able weakness in guarding American
industries and individual rights on
the high seas and in foreign lands.
We charge the Democratic party
with being recreant to the Republi.
can pledges of the President in pros
tituting the civil service to partisan
purposes !; with trampling upon the
just claims of the republic, and with
reopening the accepted settlements OF
deplorable sectional strife by order.
ing the removal of the emblems OF
such strife from the place where they
quietly reposed in the archives of the
nation, and yielding only after the
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